Year end summary: Top Robocar stories of 2022

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Here's my annual summary of the top stories of the prior year. This time the news was a strong mix of bad and good.

Read the text story on Forbes.com at Robocars 2022 year in review

And see the video version here:

Comments

700 and IP ?

Noted academic AV expert Professor Steven Shaldover says at TRBAM TRBAM2023 that he has personal experience with Chinese AV companies operating in U.S. and observed unsafe practices. Warns against US - China AV deployment race that sidelines safety.

possibilities?

AutoX
Black Sesame Tech
DeepRoute
DiDi
Nio
Pony AI
QCraft AI
XMotors AI
WeRide

huh

top 5 global BEV players to take 80 percent of market states Lei Jun, founder and CEO.

"the threshold for EVs has been dramatically lowered compared to petrol cars' . For example, the cost of batteries has fallen by 80 per cent in the past 10 years, Lei said.

Flat-rate Unlimited Rides On-Demand Mobility Service, "mobi"

Mitsui, KDDI, and WILLER

Mobileye posts a video on Twitter TODAY of a recap from CES titled:
"Learn more about our product spectrum, including Mobileye SuperVision, our most advanced driver-assist system, Mobileye Drive, our self-driving system that can turn vehicles autonomous, and Mobileye Chauffeur, our consumer AV solution" with a Nir Gideon.

CES was 3 weeks ago.

At the end of the clip, Nir Gideon states Chauffeur "is scheduled for rollout in 2024 in the Zeekr consumer vehicles" - WTH ?

Seriously- WTH ?

Someone tell Mobileye marketing the CEO announced 3 weeks ago the Zeekr Chauffeur launch was delayed until 2026.

What a circus from the marketing group at Mobileye.

Or was this a Freudian slip that the 2026 delay was made at the very last minute and this video was produced prior to a last minute change to the Chauffeur rollout timeline ? Who really made the change, Mobileye or Zeekr (despite the CEO comment in the Q&A at the end of the keynote)?

Mobileye Global Inc announced today that Dan Galves, Chief Communications Officer, is scheduled to participate in the following upcoming investor conferences in the first quarter of 2023.

Wolfe Research Global Auto, Auto Tech, and Mobility Conference, February 15, 2023
Citi 2023 Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference, February 22, 2023
Barclays Industrial Select Conference, February 23, 2023
Raymond James & Associates’ 44th Annual Institutional Investors Conference, March 6, 2023
Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, March 8, 2023

more than doubled in price in 3 months
market capitalization over $34 billion

is mobileye allowed to say material news at investor conference without making a news statement for the public

"including those 600 former Argo engineers who are now working full time at Ford on our autonomous systems"

"We're about to ship our second cycle of BlueCruise already, and we are really starting to see that is clearly what customers want revenue-wise. And I do believe in this first three, four years of software to the car that ADAS, that Level 2, Level 3 system is really the most remarkable TAM."

"our customers using BlueCruise have now traveled 42 million hands-free miles. So we're scaling incredibly rapidly."

Despite all the teething troubles, the VW Group is adamant it wants full control of the software rather than outsourcing it. In fact, an earlier agreement with Intel's Mobileye unit to supply the chip powering the MEB cars' assisted driving system was a big reason for Cariad's existence. That agreement gives Mobileye sole access to the data from the cars, which then goes to populate its REM (Road Experience Management) database to digitally map roads and pave the way for greater levels of autonomous driving. "That's a contract the Volkswagen brand did prior to Cariad. That's why Cariad was founded, because we are not having access," Hilgenberg said in Las Vegas.

VW and Cariad realised they needed that data if they wanted to gain the knowledge to offer level three and level four hands-free driving capability on cars built on the Unified platform. Cariad reckons it'll have 40 million cars on the road harvesting data by 2030, creating knowledge about all those rare 'corner cases' in driving that we humans can usually figure out how to navigate, but a computer might not.

"The functionality is dependent on the amount of corner cases you actually can secure, harden and validate, and that needs a big fleet and high-performance power," Hilgenberg said. Which means that for the Unified platform, Mobileye is out and chip supplier Qualcomm is in. One advantage Qualcomm has is that its chips can power both the assisted driving functions and the infotainment, as well as letting VW keep its data.

Cariad's goal is to write more of the software itself, up to 60% by 2025 from around 10% now. It is recruiting hard and Hilgenberg says Cariad will hire another 1700 staff in 2023 to take its headcount over 7000 across its locations in Germany, China, the US and India.

The CEO said his company receives 7000 applicants a month and is benefiting from the mass layoffs at US tech giants such as Google and Facebook.

One way it grows is through acquisition, such as the 2022 purchase of Intenta, a sensor data fusion company. In 2021, it bought the camera software division of Hella Aglaia. Cariad also has a wealth of partnerships outside the key chip makers. The premium infotainment software within the 1.2 platform going into the PPE cars is being developed on the Android Automotive open-source operating system. Cariad has formed a majority-owned joint venture in China with Horizon Robotics to develop assisted driving systems for the country, meaning it has split its strategy to avoid problems around data leaving the country (illegal in China).

Meanwhile, after VW removed itself from the Argo AI self-driving enterprise, the weight of developing more saleable (ie achievable) levels of autonomous driving fell to Cariad and its partner Bosch under the Automated Driving Alliance. The partnership now has 750 people from each company, 1500 in total, working on hands-free technology.

All this change within Cariad means timelines have slipped. The previous target of 2025 for the 2.0 software aimed at the Unified platform and the cars that were meant to herald its arrival, including the VW Trinity flagship EV, have dissolved with no new date set. It's still uncertain if cars on the PPE platform (sometimes called SSP, for Scaleable Systems Platform) including the Macan EV and new Audi A6 E-tron will use the 1.2 software or be fitted with the latest iteration of the 1.1.

Cariad's next major release of the ID software will coincide with the market launch of the Volkswagen ID 7, the electric saloon that VW teased at CES and is expected on sale in the autumn following a reveal in the spring. The timing incidentally shows how hard it is to ignore vehicle launches when rolling out major upgrades.

"That's why Cariad was founded, because we are not having access"

Hilgenberg slammed Mobileye with comment

yep mobileye Rem requires major global oems to gather data on three or four continents.
without Vw using Rem for majority of new model launches starting around 2026 or 2027 and beyond, mobileye crowd sourced data gathering is significantly impacted.
Rem requires multiple oems for coverage across a continent.
qualcomm Vepp mapping is not currently as mature as Rem though.
lidar mapping too damn expensive.
New Bosch mapping for Vw is similiar to Rem.

Las Vegas: Mobileye is one of the world's leading providers of sensor systems for cars. Now founder Amnon Shashua is focusing on Germany . "We are currently in talks with potential German customers and are open to new partners," says the head of the Israeli company, which specializes in autonomous driving, in an interview with the Handelsblatt.

Most recently, Volkswagen had agreed on extensive cooperation with Mobileye - and at the same time discontinued the Argo AI joint venture started with Ford . Shashua does not want to comment on the deal. According to industry circles, the new partners want to work together to improve autonomous driving performance on the motorway, among other things.

As the founder confirms, another partnership with a large car manufacturer that does not come from Europe is to be announced in the coming weeks. It would be the seventh cooperation: According to Mobileye, it has already signed contracts with four Chinese and two European manufacturers.

CES
- 9 SuperVision Projects plus ...

we have now SuperVision design win into six carmakers, nine brands. The scope is expanding towards Chauffeur, the eyes-off system. And additional SuperVision traction we expect to come out in the second half of the year. We have customers that we haven’t named yet, but I think the additional traction in the second half would be ones outside of those six OEMs.

We saw recent evidence in this with a premium European OEM, which kicked off a SuperVision program in Q4. During discussions, the scope of the program expanded to include a Chauffeur program that will launch in 2026 timeframe.

so 2024 there will be additional OEMs it’s not only ZEEKR, ZEEKR it’s not – currently its ZEEKR 001. That’s one brand, there’s another brand of. ZEEKR coming to launch throughout end of 2023, beginning of 2024 and then there are additional Geely OEMs that are kicking-in in 2024 and then 2025. We’re talking about OEMs outside of the Geely outside of the Geely Group.

Mobileye has kicked off development work with a premium European automaker for programs targeting delivery in 2025, with other customers at advanced stages of development.

Zeekr- 3 (001, 009, X)
Geely - 3
BMW - 1
Others - 2 (1 European, 1 ?)

Overall, Mobileye now expects volume of SuperVision based vehicles to reach about 1.2 million units in 2026.

- 4 Chauffeur Projects ( 3 plus 1)
we are now streamlining it to one piece of hardware called CH663, so three EyeQ 6, that will be in the 2025 timeframe. We have additional OEM with an eyes-off and an additional one, this European, which is not yet named for 2026 timeframe, and there is a potential additional one, which I believe that could be announced in the second half of the year for an eyes off-system based on the three EyeQ 6.

So on eyes-off system with OEMs except ZEEKER that starts in 2025, the rest of the OEMs are starting in 2026. So we have quite a nice traction, as I said three OEMs and the fourth one should be – should be closed second half of this year for eyes-off systems for 2026.

During discussions, the scope of the program expanded to include a Chauffeur program that will launch in 2026 timeframe. The Chauffeur portion of this program alone represents an expected $1.5 billion opportunity through 2030.

2025 - 1 (Zeekr)
2026 - 3 (Vinfast, BMW, ? )

ZEEKR has entered into an investment agreement with industry-leading partners including Prof. Amnon Shashua, CATL, Yuexiu Industrial Fund, Tongshang Fund and Xin’an Intelligent Manufacturing Fund to raise USD $750 million for continued technology research and global expansion.

The five investors have agreed to invest in the Series-A funding round that will raise a total of USD 750 million. Zeekr is now valued at USD 13 billion after completion of this funding round.

Of the five investors, two investors in the company are new- Amnon Shashua, CEO and founder of autonomous driving technology company Mobileye Global and the Guangzhou city municipal government’s investment arm Yuexiu Industrial Fund.

The successful signing of the second external funding round represents a significant vote of confidence as Zeekr develops proprietary technologies built around safety, sustainability, user-experience, and new mobility services. Zeekr will use the funds to explore and grow a global sales network.

mbly ceo invests in zeekr who switching to mbly competitor chip from nvidia
makes no sense
mbly employee confusion why ceo help zeekr who switch to nvidia

what good is REM if next generation platforms from the big oems do not use eyeq system

Vw, Bmw, Gm are moving to qualcomm in 2025 to 2027

how will Rem gather fresh data with fewer and fewer cars on road with eyeq

lol gradually can be years
what be standard roads
what be certain road
what be gradually

mobileye on lnkdn 1w

Mobileye SuperVision provides driver-assist features on all standard roads, but still requires the driver's full attention with eyes on the road.

With the addition of further sensors, Mobileye Chauffeur will allow drivers to go 'eyes-off' on certain roads: gradually from highways, to arterial and rural roads and eventually to urban roads, at which point a driver is no longer needed.

Trimble announced today that Nissan Motor Co. will use Trimble RTX technology as its high-accuracy positioning source, enabling the hands-off and guided freeway driving capabilities of the ProPILOT Assist 2.0 driver assistance system, available initially on the 2023 Nissan Ariya.

In the first half of last year, 2.88 million passenger vehicles fitted with driver-assistance systems were sold in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. They accounted for 32.4 percent of all passenger vehicles sold in the nation during that period.

Andrew Grant, senior associate with Bloomberg NEF's Intelligent Mobility team, said Level 2 vehicles are expected to surpass 50 percent of global passenger vehicle sales by 2025. He estimated the peak for Level 2 sales will arrive in 2028, with approximately 53 million vehicles sold.

"While Level 2 vehicles will remain a sizable market, Level 3 vehicles could be even bigger as soon as 2027, with sales of Level 2 and 3 vehicles approaching a combined $150 billion," he said.

Baidu said it can launch its robotaxi fleets in a new city in just 20 days, as its automated systems generate 96 percent of the maps needed, reducing the workload for human engineers in completing them.

A report by global consultancy IHS Markit said the market for China's robotaxi services is expected to surpass 1.3 trillion yuan by 2030, accounting for 60 percent of the country's ride-hailing market by then.

BloombergNEF estimates that China will operate the world's largest robotaxi fleet, with about 12 million vehicles by 2040, followed by the United States, with around 7 million autonomous vehicles.

Originally announced August 2021

Aug 27 2021 - 'The two companies (Zeekr and Mobileye) also plan to collaborate further on a next generation system powered by six EyeQ5 SoCs to deliver a new standard for a comprehensive ADAS experience. It is expected to make its global debut as soon as 2023'

Then four months later on Jan 4 2022, this next generation system is re-positioned -'Mobileye and Zeekr aim to deliver the world’s first consumer autonomous vehicle with L4 capabilities by 2024'.

Based on new information provided at CES 2023, this first Mobileye Chauffeur program launching with Zeekr is now scheduled to ship in late 2025, about a year later than originally expected.

Mobileye provided some other additional updates during CES 2023 on the company’s first three Chauffeur launches - this original Zeekr program, a Vinfast program noted in the October IPO Roadshow presentation and a third 'premium European' auto program (with BMW as the likely candidate).

As a result of details provided in the question and answer segment of the Mobileye CES keynote, the Zeekr and Vinfast Chauffeur launches will not have Urban ODD support based upon the specifications provided in the keynote.

Mobileye is moving the Zeekr and Vinfast (Chauffeur 56) launches from 6 EyeQ5 to 3 EyeQ6H (Chauffeur 63).

The specific ODD supported by this hardware change for eyes-off navigation has not been officially announced but the ODD range will minimally include Highways and On/Off Ramps ODD (Blade 3) and at a maximum can provide eyes-off support on an ODD range up to and including Arterial and Rural roads (blade 4 and blade 5). But Chauffeur 63 cannot provide eyes-off support in a Full/Urban ODD.

The two development programs were evidently too advanced to add an additional EyeQ6 (a further upgrade to Chauffeur 64) as well as the Mobileye EyeC Imaging Radar sensor suite in order to enable Full/Urban ODD support, even if the Mobileye EyeC Imaging Radar will be available in the latter half of 2024 as an Automotive C Sample grade product.

Zeekr has been Mobileye's first customer throughout the SuperVision and Chauffeur product program launch cycles but there is a possibility that this third Chauffeur program launch noted at CES and scheduled for 2026 (European - likely BMW) could be the first 'Full/Urban ODD' Chauffeur launch for Mobileye.

It would be ironic if BMW launches the first FULL ODD Chauffeur program.

Zeekr still could debut the world’s first consumer autonomous vehicle with L4 capabilities by 2024 - Mobileye did not state 'full ODD' - but another OEM could launch the first Full ODD L4 program.

Or maybe this third Chauffeur program launch does not pursue a Full ODD but this seems unlikely for a premium European auto manufacturer.

There is a fourth Chauffeur program in negotiations that could close in the second half of 2023.

what made mobileye originally believe it could launch L4 in 2 yrs?

to state as the company did in august 2021 that chauffeur could be on roads in late 2023 had to been based on some set of metrics or criteria.

the new estimate of the second half of 2025 would suggest a robust program is the end game.

a solid eyes off capability on highways, arterial and rural roads would advance the notion of safe and affordable eyes off driving noticeably.

Via Twitter: From a MS note

re: Tesla FSD vs. Mobileye Supervision

"On a test drive from Barcelona to Germany, an OEM benchmarking ADAS products noted that the rate of interventions for the Supervision-equipped car was one-tenth that of Tesla's FSD-equipped car in their tests"

And to think this road test was seven months ago not to mention SuperVision is also one-tenth the cost of FSD.

Fidelity Investment 13G for Mobileye

(a) Amount Beneficially Owned: 2,631,819

(b) Percent of Class: 5.069 percent

on February 9, 2023 this Schedule 13G in connection with their beneficial ownership of the CLASS A COMMON STOCK of MOBILEYE GLOBAL INC at December 30, 2022.

eyes off chauffeur on highway still 2 1/2 or more yrs away and will launch be a 3 to 12 month trial pilot for select customers of zeekr before entire fleet recieve update. what zeekr model will have chauffeur since nvidia is working with zeekr?

BMW CEO Oliver Zipse comments at CES 2023 that spawned several reports and opinion columns remain unfinished as the original reporting failed to follow-up on the CEO's seemingly contradicting statements.

As reported on the German website
efahrer dot chip dot de, this translation is generating commentary in the US media -

- "The BMW boss is skeptical about the market prospects of today's autonomous driving systems, where the car can take control in some situations and liability lies with the manufacturer during this time. According to common classification, this is seen as level 3 of autonomous driving. At level 4, a car only drives itself under specified conditions, but human intervention should no longer be necessary.

BMW competitor Mercedes has been selling a Level 3 system in some models since last year, which takes over control and liability on freeways at speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour until the human takes control back when requested.

Zipse currently does not see the current state of the art as sufficient for a business model: "A level 3 system, whether at 60, 80 or 120 kilometers per hour, which constantly switches off in the tunnel, switches off when it rains, switches off in the dark, switches off in fog - what's that supposed to mean? No customer buys it.” No one wants to be in the shoes of a manufacturer who misinterprets a traffic situation during the liability phase, for example when control is handed back to the driver. "We don't take the risk." -

With BMW to introduce a "Level 3" vehicle later this year, a reasonable follow-up to the above (Google translated) comments by the BMW CEO would seem appropriate.

From the website BMWBlog-
"In an interview with CarBuzz, Frank Weber explained why the system will be launched with the 7er: "...
"BMW has announced the new 7 Series G70 will get a Level 3 self-driving system later this year. Speaking in Las Vegas at CES 2023 where the i Vision Dee concept was unveiled, Chief Technology Officer Frank Weber said the functionality will be added to the company’s flagship model in 2023. He went on to mention it’s a “real Level 3; the vehicle is in charge, not the driver.”

FRAV and VMAD agreed on a methodology to manage and coordinate work on the joint submission to WP29 for June 2024.
- Matrix of ADS requirements and validation methods. Iterative process to reach agreement on text for requirements and their validation. FRAV expects to begin collaboration with VMAD from April. - Initial requirements and explanations for consideration by VMAD and its subgroups.

Informal Working Group on Functional Requirements for Automated Vehicles Status Report - 15th GRVA Session, 23-27 January 2023

Polestar more probably number three Chauffeur car not BMW
Polestar a Geely company

As the commentary on this 2026-2030 program references $1.5 billion over 5 years, a reasonable estimate is for 250,000 to 275,000 vehicles over the 5 years. Any "premium European OEM" selling 250,000 vehicles in 5 years would have a strong presence in Germany as the driving and legal environment in the country is positioned for a Chauffeur driving experience.

For the intial SuperVision program to dovetail with the follow-up Chauffeur program, engineering continuity is key. Polestar is also purported to be implementing Nvidia's central compute framework across all new models.

BMW has considerable experience working with Mobileye on highly assisted driving technology on the company’s existing internal combustion engine platform. In addition, despite BMW's development of a next generation EV platform, the company is still targeting delivery of ICE models well past 2030. The ability to smoothly launch the SV and CH programs consecutively would be a competitive edge for BMW as the company’s Neue Klasse next generation EV platform launch cycle is intentionally independent from their ICE platform and several years away from a launch. The compressed launch sequence of the SV and CH programs also imply the use of the same platform. This favors BMW as well as Polestar is in the process of an EV platform transition.

Vinfast and Intel will also work together to define a shared vision of future in-vehicle computing platforms and build scalable in-vehicle computing platforms for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) based on Mobileye technology and infotainment systems that deliver a unique in-vehicle experience for Vingroup and VinFast customers and create a suite of services that will differentiate them from competitors.

central compute? with ZF?
infotainment? with ?

Previously, Joachim Langenwalter was SVP, Head of Global Software and Hardware Engineering at Stellantis, including its autonomous driving, smart cockpit and connected services programs. Prior to Stellantis, he was VP of Software Strategy at Volkswagen, and Director of Automotive Software at NVIDIA.

Autobrains just recently hired Former Mobileye VP Hilla Tavor as Chief Business Officer who was Vice President of ADAS Business Development at Mobileye.

Congratulations Mobileye!

no news from company with investing meetings
four meetings but nothing
nothing

millions of shares now short
over 15pc shares
get bigger every week
ipo lockup soon ends

Automobilwoche
In an exclusive interview with Automobilwoche, Mathias Pillin, Head of Technology at Bosch's Mobility division, talks about the collaboration with Volkswagen, the challenges of automated driving and the software-defined vehicle.
Bosch has been working with the Volkswagen subsidiary Cariad on the next generation of driver assistance systems for a year. The first functions such as a lane change assistant are to come into the cars this year, says Bosch technology boss Mathias Pillin in an interview.
Mathias Pillin has been Head of Technology at Bosch's mobility division since autumn last year and is also responsible for the software-defined vehicle.

Shanghai, March 10, 2023 — Mobileye, a leading global provider of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), today announced the opening of its Shanghai Jiading Technical Test Center, continuing its commitment to providing advanced and reliable solutions to Chinese automakers.

Mobileye executives were on hand to deliver remarks, and the opening event was attended by Ms. Ravit Baer, Consul General of Israel in Shanghai, as well as Mobileye’s customers and partners.

In 2022, through the collaboration and efforts of our partners, Mobileye has been awarded 24 project sites from 12 Chinese automakers.

mobileye sell chauffeur to car maker for between 3000 and 6000 euro but car maker sell in car between 12,000 and 15,000 euro
who buys chauffeur

sv?

another 1/2b for sv

Congratulations again Mobileye!

World-class!

Congratulations Mobileye again!

Toyota

Liat Koren

Congratulations Mobileye!

Congratulations Mobileye!

Congratulations Mobileye!

Congratulations Mobileye!

robotaxi news from emea

Stuttgart is home to Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.

Samsung to supply chips for Mobileye reports The Korea Economic Daily Global Edition in an exclusive report today.

"Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chipmaker, has won a semiconductor production order from Israel-based Mobileye Global Inc., a leading autonomous driving tech developer within Intel Corp."

"The Israeli fabless will use the chips for some products under its EyeQ 5 model, an automotive-grade system on a chip (SoC) based on 7 to 28 nm processes. Mobileye has commercialized EyeQ1-5 models"

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